Please Welcome Back Author Jayne-Marie Barker

with Jayne-Marie Barker

We are delighted to welcome back author Jayne-Marie Barker to Omnimystery News.

Jayne-Marie visited with us last week to discuss her new thriller is The Dancer's Ghost (Austin Macauley Publishers; October 2013 trade paperback format) and we asked her to tell us a little more about the backstory to her books. Her guest post for us today is titled, "Forward Thinking — Where Will Your Writing Take You?".

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Photo provided courtesy of
Jayne-Marie Barker

It's not an easy question is it — where will you be in five years time? People are always asking, especially when the subject of careers crops up. Have you ever been asked the question and stared, blankly, lost for words? When it comes to life in general I definitely have proffered the odd blank look in my time; but when it comes to writing I have always had a solid plan.

It's one thing to know what you want, but navigating the path to get there is quite another. Just how far forward do you need to plan, and how do you even start? These are a few of the questions I put down on paper some years back, and struggled through muddled thoughts until I came to a conclusion. Someone told me to work backwards, so I tried it.

I knew I wanted to be a published author, a name reasonably well known, or at least recognised. It seemed too far a leap from the starting line so I broke the plan down into segments.

To work backwards from being published I had to attract a publisher. I read articles about publisher submissions, how to write them, what to include in the cover letter, how to write a synopsis, how to target the correct publishing houses for the appropriate genre … the reading list is actually endless. At some point you have to stop, summarise what you've learnt and get on with it.

To move backwards again from there I needed a polished novel to submit. Again, research told me how to polish my work to publisher standard and I won't proceed to bore you with what you probably already know on that score. That bought me to where I stood at that time, with a novel, a submission plan and a prayer.

Now I'm a big believer in hard work and effort and, personally, I think that most of us have to work doubly hard to achieve anything at all. There is precious little for free. However, having that said, when you want to get published it doesn't hurt to cross your fingers and pray for a bit of good fortune. Like most things in life success is 99% hard slog and 1% good luck. The same principle can be said about careers, whether you want to fly for the Red Arrows or make the top ten best sellers list. Just figure out the path a bit at a time.

When people realise I have written a whole book they mostly look astounded and say something like "I don't think I'd even know where to begin", but of course they are thinking about the overall thing — a sizeable target indeed. If you break it down, start with yes I'm going to write a book, I'm going to plot out my main events and I'm going to decide in which chapter these events fall, then you begin to create a path on the page. When you're writing that bit just think about that bit, don't worry about the rest of the book. Gradually you build and build and eventually you realise that you're almost finished with the first draft. Hey presto, a complete novel. So it's a bit scratchy here and there and it needs a spell check, but it's done.

Go back to your master plan and tick off the first few stages, move on. It's all about determination. Just keep going, keep learning and keep writing. Never give up.

My current phrase is to build my online profile so if you're reading this blog then thank you, thank you, thank you, because it all helps towards a name in fiction. I'm not quite there yet with the recognisable name target, but I'm on track so watch this space.

So, the next time someone asks you where you're going to be in five years, look them in the eye, smile (it throws people off balance, great fun I always find) and say in a confident voice "I'm going to be a published author by then", then walk away before they can ask you another equally awkward question!

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Born in May 1981, Jayne-Marie Barker grew up in Suffolk where my family remain and whom she visits every month. Following the achievement of my OCR RSA Diploma in Administrative and Secretarial Procedures in the summer of 1999, she moved to Hertfordshire to pursue her career. She currently works as Personal Assistant to the CEO and board directors for Europe's leading tyre company.

Aside from writing, her other great love in life is dance; she belongs to an excellent school. Her passion for dance is such that she has passed exams in Ballroom, Latin, Salsa and Argentine Tango, and can now proudly call herself an amateur member of the IDTA.

For more information about the author and her work, please visit her website at JayneMarieBarker.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Dancer's Ghost
Jayne-Marie Barker
A Novel of Suspense

Where we come from can change everything …

When a baby is snatched the famous parents keep the tragedy secret, but this doesn't prevent Joyce Capelli from searching, attracting trouble at every turn. An anonymous writer claims to know everything, but it will cost Joyce more than she realises. When a shot is fired all she finds is an open window, and a room of photographs.

In the modern day Rebecca Houseman finds herself widowed, suffering persistent dreams, and threatened. What she doesn't know is why. When the unconventional DCI Allen says her husband's apparent natural causes was in fact murder, she wonders what he was trying to tell her in his final breath.

A stranger is watching the Houseman family, an unsettling familiarity that could change everything. As the attempts grow increasingly deadly, the inspector strives to solve the case, but can he crack the mystery before the assassin finds Rebecca?

Meanwhile, in the 1960s, Joyce's delight at finding her baby is tragically short lived. What could ink Rebecca Houseman and the young dancer's missing baby all those years ago?